iOS Developers in Apple’s in-app Purchase System Face Legal Threats

27 May 2011 | News | Ria Absin-Viente on Google+

An article in TUAW said the developers received the letter this week accusing them of copyright violation. Though the developers are not officially sued, the content of the letters is giving them 21 days to get licenses for the technology related to the apps they purchased from the App store.

James Thomson, the developer of “PCalc Lite” and Patrick McCarron who is a developer from Chicago were among the developers who received the letters accusing them of copyright violation related to iOS apps. The letters were sent through FedEx.

The copyright infringement complaints is said to be coming from Lodsys, a firm for patent holding and said to be connected to “Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network”, or U.S. Patent No. 7222078. According to MacRumors, the patent was filed in 2003 but is including old apps inclusing those from 1992.

The patent terms were originally created by Dan Abelow who sold his patent portfolio to Lodsys in 2004. The letters that are threatening the Apple’s OS developers are said to be from Lodsys.

There is no sign however, that the firm will be coming after Apple, though the company is currently responsible with managing and controlling apps in the App store for iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone, as well as the rules of in-app purchase.

Apple introduced in-app purchase in 2009 along with the launch of iOS 3.0 for the iPhone. The feature was originally for paid apps, but Apple later granted developers free application that will let them charge additional contents and add-ons.

Apple is also charging in-app purchases through the consumers iTunes account like how the company is charging app purchases in the Apple Store. The company is currently getting 30 percent share of the total sales generated from iOS apps.